Did you know – Bicycle dimensions
for a touring bike is completely different to that of a normal road bike or mountain
bike. Our bikes are made by Surly and we’re
using the ‘Long Haul Trucker’. A ‘no-frills’
bike which should be able to do the job.
For excellent service and good advice on the Surly bikes, go to Brixton cycles
in London.Read more about our bikeshere.

Before we could even say ‘get on
yer bike’, it was time to pack up once again and make final preparations for
our next adventure. I still don’t know
how we actually decided on this one, probably another one of those ‘spur of the
moment’ ideas.

I think the whole idea started
just before Christmas 2011.We were
always going to do another trip; it was just a matter of how and when. We played around with a few ideas of which
one was to go on my motorbike.We
chatted about it all for a little while and before we knew it, we were standing
in Brixton cycles, talking to the very helpful staff, test riding some of the
bikes and getting the correct frame size.
Just like that, in a blink of an eye, we were committed to it all.We paid our deposit and were told the bikes
will be ready to collect the next week with all the changes we asked for. It was as easy as that, or will it really be?Only time will tell.

We were very fortunate in that we
didn’t have a lot to pack up. Sarah (our
good friend Craig’s soon to be missus!!) very kindly offered her flat to us
when we arrived in London, fully furnished.It was so convenient and saved us so much time and effort when we
left. Thanks Sarah, for letting us stay
there, it was really great of you and we appreciate it a lot!Craig also very kindly offered to take us to
the airport. This saved us so much
trouble of getting a taxi big enough to get us, two bikes in boxes and all our
luggage to the airport.Thanks Craig,
for taking us to the airport, and seeing us off. A great friend and we’ll certainly miss you
and Sarah!Our other good friend, Alun, also
joined us for the first 10 days in Bali.

Craig picked us up at 7.30am on
Tuesday morning, fingers and toes crossed that we will not hit any major
traffic delays. Traffic was heavy on the
M25, but we made it to the airport with enough time.Our flight was at 12 noon and we made it with
plenty of time. The check-in line
quickly got busy and we got in just in time.We decided to fly with Malaysian Air, seeing that the price was
reasonable and you are allowed to check bicycles in as ‘checked baggage’. They charge £35 for a bike up to 15kg, and
£75 for a bike over 15kg.Off course,
our bikes weighed more than 15kg each.
The check-in lady wasn’t having the best of days; she almost made us pay
excess baggage, even though our total weight was within the allowance.Our hand luggage weighed almost nothing, but
checked in baggage was over the allocated 20kg.
Luckily, with a bit of persistence, and convincing her to think with her
head instead of blindly following the letter of the law, we managed to check in
without any further dramas.

Our flight was pleasant enough,
and we had a short stop-over in Kuala Lumpur of about an hour before we boarded
our short 3 hour flight to Denpasar.Bali airport is small and wasn’t too busy when we got there. We arranged for a 60 day visa in London, so
avoided the queue to buy the visa on arrival.By the time we got through immigration, our luggage was already off
loaded. To our horror, my bike box was
open.Two things immediately raced
through my mind. What is broken/lost,
and did someone add a little ‘gift’ to my box to take through customs.Perhaps something they didn’t want to take
through themselves. I made sure to make
an immediate scene as to why the boxes were open and got some of the airport
staff to have a look and I filed a report with them too.Rather safe than sorry. I had a quick look into the box and all
seemed fine, and it looked like all the bits were still there.Thank goodness I used cable ties to secure
everything together. Anyway, after
filling in forms to say the boxes were open when we got them and to say that we’ll
be taking the bikes away without inspecting them, i.e. not knowing if there’s
any damage, it was time to head for customs.Everything goes through an x-ray machine and we managed to cause a bit
of a hold-up getting the bikes through the machine and managed to hold everyone
up a little bit, just enough for the custom officers to want to get us out of
there as soon as possible.

We also managed to catch up with
Alun who arrived on his flight within minutes of us landing, and we spotted him
in the baggage reclaim area. So after
all the drama of completing forms, going through customs, it was time to get
some taxis to the place we booked.This
was another challenge. They only have
small taxis and we had to make do with taking two and tying the boxes to the
roof.We finally made it to our
guesthouse, in one piece and with everything intact. Time for a shower and a snooze!

08 July 2012

Did you know – Indonesia is comprised of 17,508 islands of which
only a third are inhabited; some are shared with other countries. With a
population of 238 million, it is the fourth most populous country on Earth and
the largest Muslim country (86 per cent of Indonesians are Muslim). More than
half the population lives on Java, making it the world’s most densely populated
island. The other big population centres are Sumatra, Borneo (shared with
Malaysia and Brunei) and West Papua (shared with Papua New Guinea). Indonesia
is home to more than 300 ethnic groups but most speak Indonesian, a variant of
Malay developed in the Twenties by nationalists and adopted as the official
language after independence.

We managed to have a decent
night’s sleep and the jet-lag seems to be under control as well. The time difference to the UK is 7 hours and
6 hours to SA.I think we’ll be over the
jet lag by the end of the day. Indonesia
has different time zones with an hour difference between Bali and Java, and
also between Java and Sumatra.

It was time to put the bikes
together, fingers still crossed that everything would be ok after finding my
bike box open. We managed to pack the bikes in a way not to have to disconnect
the brakes or gears.This meant that we
only needed to take the pedal off, remove the handlebar and also the front
pannier rack with the mudguard.
All-in-all, not too much to do.Putting everything back together didn’t take too long either, with the
exception of the front mudguard. It was
a tricky affair lining it up properly.Tightening one side of the guard has an effect on the other side, so you
have to do it in stages. Anyway, after
playing around with it for a bit, it was all good.Alun went for an afternoon snooze in the
meantime which gave us some time to go for a short test ride. We had a quick 30min ride around Seminyak and
everything seems to working the way it should.

Seminyak is about 8km to the
north of the main tourist area of Kuta.I think it is all part of the greater Denpasar area anyway. We stayed in Seminyak for 3 nights before
heading to Kuta.Our stay in Seminyak
was very uneventful. There’s not a lot
going on there besides from the beach area and one or two temples to go
to.We strolled around aimlessly, not
doing much. The best plan of action we
could think of to get use to the warm weather and humidity. The temperature is around 30 every day with
humidity of 70 – 80%.

It was time for our very short
first ride to Kuta. It was only about
8km, but seemed a bit daunting nevertheless.It was already hot and humid by the time we left around 9.30 in the
morning. Alun arranged for a taxi, and
armed with address details and his hotel booking, was on his way in no time, no
doubt enjoying an air-con drive there.We, on the other hand, were getting ready for our first test, the very
busy streets of Bali. Armed with our
whistles around our necks to get the attention of the other person if shouting
can’t be heard, we were off.A little
bit wobbly to start with, getting use to all the weight on the front wheels
again. It is fine once you get going,
but it is the get-going which is the tricky bit.This is especially true when there are loads
of motorbikes and cars all around you.

Little Australia, that’s the only
description needed for Kuta. Around
every corner, in every shop, you see them.To make things worse, all the locals think we’re Australian too,
greeting us with a very bad ‘Gday mate’, or ‘How you going’. This assumption, as well as thinking you
always want a massage, or want a taxi to a massage ‘spa’, or a massage in a
taxi (who knows…) is enough to drive you bonkers very quickly.To be fair though, they only trying to make a
living.

After our initial shock of
thinking we’re in Brisbane somewhere, we decided to explore a little. Alun spotted a very nice place on the beach
where we had a drink the one morning, and this very quickly became our spot for
doing nothing over the next few days.A
routine developed very quickly, with a leisurely breakfast in the morning at
our hotel, followed by a walk around Kuta and then the ‘mandatory’ drink at our
spot by the beach. This was normally
followed by an indirect stroll back to our hotel for a bit of afternoon
relaxation with some reading and talking nonsense.

Our time in Kuta was coming to an
end, it was almost time to head inland to Ubud.Our first impression of Bali was not that great to be honest, and I’m
yet to understand what the big fuss is all about. Just about all the beaches we went to were
really dirty, with polluted water from the city running into the sea where it’s
supposed to be prime beach area.I don’t
think they’re doing themselves any favours by not cleaning up anywhere. This together with the Bali bombings of 2002
seems to be a good recipe for the travel industry dying out eventually.This tourist ‘hotspot’ is quickly becoming
lukewarm. I really hope not for their
sake (yikes, only a week into the trip and already a bit negative; will have to
change that attitude very quickly!).

Ubud (about 35km north of Kuta)
was our next destination, and our first proper ride.The idea was to get away early in the
morning, but this didn’t really happen.
We thought we would be out of there by 7.30am, but only managed to leave
around 8.30am; just in time for the heavy morning traffic.We couldn’t even pack the bikes the previous
night, because we were on the 2nd floor and it is near impossible to
carry the heavily loaded bikes down the stairs.
After yet another wobbly start, we were on our way.This time a bit further and luckily
relatively flat too. We were aiming for
around a 3 hour ride, but most likely a little bit longer with the traffic and
having a few rest stops.The roads were
very busy, with motorbikes whizzing past, overtaking, undertaking and generally
doing what they want. Besides from that,
they all seem very patient, and the driving mentality is very similar to what
we found in Egypt.Only worry about
what’s ahead of you; things behind you don’t really matter. Once we got out of the city area, things
became more pleasant.There was still a
bit of traffic around, but it seems like the drivers are actually quiet
considerate and patient. If they can’t
pass you, they sit behind you until it’s relatively safe to pass.They don’t seem to want to ‘force their wors’,
as Mandy like to say.

We eventually made it to Ubud,
taking a little bit longer than what we planned originally. We found our pre-booked homestay without any
problem and were pleasantly surprised.Very nice room, with a fan and also very clean - what more can you ask
for? Ubud is a lot different to what
we’ve seen so far in Bali.It looks
cleaner, the little ‘Warungs’ (like a café/restaurant) are nicer and lots of
nice little shops. There are a few
tourist attractions like the Monkey forest, lots of markets selling all sorts
of tourist memorabilia and the local royal gardens.

Coming to Ubud also meant that it
was almost time for Alun to head back to London.It was really nice to have him with us here
in Bali, and it also forced us to relax a bit first before heading off. And so it all came to a very quick end for
Alun’s time with us and it was time for a sad good bye.Thanks Alun for joining us, and for
entertaining us with some of your priceless ‘off the cuff’ remarks and for
making us laugh so much. Have a good
flight back and watch out for those custom officials!We’ll see you back in London.

18 July 2012

Did you know - One of the strangest products of Indonesian
agriculture involves the farming of the Asian palm civet. These small, cat-sized mammals are fed coffee berries and
their faeces are collected and washed to make kopi luwak (civet coffee). The
action of their stomach enzymes lends the resulting drink an unmatched richness
of flavour that has none of coffee’s usual bitterness. As a result it is the
world’s most expensive beverage, fetching up to £500 per pound. In 2008 an espresso made from kopi luwak went
on sale at Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, London, for £50 per
cup.

The Sunday after Alun left was
our first real test.It all started very
well with a nice flat road followed by a short downhill. We were only about 2km away from Ubud when
reality struck and we realised that this cycling business will not be a walk in
the park.We had to get off and push up
2 very steep hills through some of the valleys.
Not a good sign for the day.We had
looked at our route profile the previous day and decided that we were only
going to do 17km to a small town called Tampaksiring where there are a couple of
temples to visit. We made it in
relatively good time, starting our day just before 8am and getting there around
noon, climbing from 200m to about 600m.

The town (if you can call it
that) itself is nothing special, typically run down place, with some shops
selling food, motorbike repair shops and some shops to fix a flat tyre.We very quickly realised that our original
plan to stay here for the night wasn’t going to work. There was only one homestay close to the
town, and that was about 1km down the hill again, and we weren’t that keen to
go down the hill, just to have to come back up the following day again.So after looking at the temple and having
some lunch and a rest, we decided to tackle the rest of the hill the same day.

It was time again to get on our
bikes and head for Penelokan, a small town close to the top of the volcanic
crater and Lake Batur. It was tough, oh
so very tough, with a continuous climb from 600m to just under 1500m.There were absolutely no downhill bits and
also no flat bits. Just climbing and
climbing the whole time.The cycling
gods did look after us a bit I suppose.
Instead of the high humidity and 32 degrees of Ubud, the temperature
started to drop a bit when we got to about 800m.It slowly started to cool down a bit with a
bit of mist in the air. I think the
temperature went down to about 20 degrees.Goodness knows what it would’ve been like to do this hill if it was hot.

We eventually made it to the top,
after a lot of breaks and stopping. It
was starting to get dark and we made it just in time and still had to find a
place to stay.All I can say is that it
was a hell of a day, and it was a struggle, but we made it. I’m not exactly sure how Mandy managed to do
it – I could see that she was giving it her all!Respect where it’s due – Mands, not sure
where you got the strength from, but one thing is for sure, there’s not a lot
of people I know who will be able to do what you just did with a fully loaded
bike weighing 40kg. I’m really proud of
you.I’m sure we will have more hard
days, but not sure if anything will top this one!

We did absolutely nothing the
following day, besides from eating, sitting around and massaging our legs for
an hour or so to try and prevent stiffness and also to try and prevent my knee
from giving me any problems in the coming days.

Our next stop was a seaside town
called Lovina, just past the bigger regional town of Buleleng. This was also a long day, with some more
climbing to do (about another 300m in 10 km) first thing in the morning followed
by a nice long downhill back to the coast.The downhill was also hard work, especially on your wrists and arms, and
the fact that you have to concentrate a lot because it was very twisty, on the
brakes the whole time, dodging trucks, cars and bikes on the corners. We had to stop frequently on the downhill
too, to make sure our brakes and rims don’t heat up too much (I managed my top
speed today too, an impressive 51km/hr.The bike is a bit of a handful with all the weight on the front
wheel). Eventually, the last 10km
downhill was pleasant, being able to enjoy the scenery and ride.

Lovina is a small town on the
coast and not a lot happening there.It
is a place where you come to do nothing, exactly what we had in mind. We still haven’t recovered fully from our
massive day climbing and decided to take a few more days to recover here.We found a nice little place to stay, with a
nice pool area and close to the beach. We
stayed here for 3 days, catching up on some reading and relaxing a bit.I also managed to service our little MSR stove. It started to play up a bit when we used it
on our trip to Holland earlier in the year.It was time to replace tome of the O-rings; it was p!s$ing out petrol as
soon as I pressurise the fuel bottle and connect it up. After 30 min, cleaning it up, replacing the
O-rings and lubricating the bits, it was good as new; boiling water for 2 cups
of tea in under a minute (2 minutes tops!)

Our relaxing stay in Lovina came
to an end very quickly.We were on the
road again, heading west to the port town of Gilimanuk, to get a ferry to
Java. It was still another 2 days’ worth
of riding to get there, but feeling refreshed, we were ready to tackle it.

Food plays a big part in cyclist
lives, and this also applies to us.We’ve
seen some different types of fruit while we’ve been here, and thought it was
about time to supplement our rice and noodle diet (ignoring the very nice
mahi-mahi fish and tuna we had the last few days) with some of it. We decided to try 3 different fruit – snake
fruit, sawo and star fruit.Our least
favourite was probably the snake fruit.
Not bad tasting, but nothing too special to rave about.The sawo fruit was nice, albeit a bit
unusual. It’s got a high latex content
and your lips get all sticky from eating it.When ripe, the fruit is extremely sweet with almost a malty
flavour. It almost tastes like caramel
or a mix between pear candied with brown sugar; definitely good for an instant
energy boost.Star fruit was definitely
our favourite. The fruit is extremely
juicy, with similar consistency to grapes.They are sweet, with a tart, sour undertone. It tastes like a mixture of apple, pear and
citrus fruit.It’s a very nice and
refreshing fruit.

We had a very nice and quiet ride
through some national parks on the way to the ferry. The ferry between Bali and Java runs 24 hours
a day and about every 30 min.We didn’t
hang around and was on the ferry in no time after getting our ticket. The ferry goes to a place called Ketapang,
about 8km north of the town called Banyuwangi where we were going to stay for a
couple of nights.

We immediately noticed that Java
is busy and the 8km ride to Banyuwangi was an eye opener.The road was narrow and bumpy, with lots of
busses and trucks around. So far, they
seem to be fairly considerate and patient behind you if they can’t pass.I’m sure that will change as we travel
further.

Our original plan was to head to
the southern part of Java and see if we can get to some of the beaches
there. After looking at the route and
altitude profiles and also reading some other blogs, we decided to rather head
to the northern part of Java.This
looked to be a lot flatter. The only
thing is that we’ll backtrack the last 8km from the day before.A small price to pay though if the rest of
the route will be relatively flat compared to the south. We spent the next day in Banyuwangi.The task for the day was to clean the chains
on the bikes, hopefully prolonging the life of the chains too. A little task which takes a long time to do -
with the old toothbrush, chain degreaser and rag in hand, it took almost 2
hours to clean both chains.It is a rewarding
job though, seeing the clean chain afterwards and the difference in pedaling
too. Everything is so smooth and quiet
when the chain is clean.We also noticed
what sounded like motorbike racing in the distance. Being a bike fan, I twisted Mandy’s arm to
take a walk with me to see what was going on.We soon came across what looked like some sort of street race. We decided not to risk watching it though.The part of the track we saw was a straight
of about 50 meter with a hairpin bend at the end. The awareness of safety is almost
non-existent here.The spectators were
standing on the hairpin bend, and the only thing separating them from the
riders was a few small sandbags and another 1 meter or so. I know health and safety is a bit over the top
in the UK, but rather that than this bunch of hooligans.

So after our unusual breakfast of
sweet scrambled egg, toast with the crust cut off and coffee with about 20
teaspoons of sugar, it was time for us to go back the way we came into the
town.Little did we know that this was
going to be our longest (and our hottest) day on the road yet. Again, the town we wanted to stay in turned
out to be almost nothing.We did have a
rest there though with a well-deserved ice cream and ice cold drink to get out
of the sun. The temp gauge on Mandy’s
computer was reading 45 degrees after all.We ended up doing just over 90km for the day. A long day in the saddle, that’s for sure.

We had a nice ‘lie-in’ the next
morning, waking up just before 10.We
only had 30km to do and it was all flat.
Our destination was Pasir Putih, a local beach destination for the city
folk of the larger cities in the area.This place is extremely ordinary, with over-priced accommodation and not
good value for money compared to other places we’ve stayed at before. We even had our first introduction to the
‘Mandi’ – no, not Mandy’s distant Indonesian cousin, but just a fancy word for
bucket and water to wash yourself.

29 July 2012

Did you know – The Komodo dragon (also known as Komodo monitor) is
found on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and
Padar. It is the largest species of
lizard, growing up to 3 meters in some cases and weighing on average about
70kgs, sometimes up to 130kgs.There are
4 times more male than female dragons in the wild. The meat-eating lizard can consume up to 80%
of its own bodyweight in one sitting.The dragon can run up to 18 kph in short bursts. They grow about 30 years old in the
wild.The saliva of the Komodo dragon
has over 50 types of bacteria, and the victim will usually die within 24 hours
of blood poisoning.

We celebrated arriving at our
next town with a bit of ‘westerness’. We
saw a sign for KFC as we came into the town centre and came across it later
that night.We couldn’t not go in seeing
that we’ve been having a variation of rice every day and no real protein in our
diet with the exception of some soya and tofu every now and again. It was a nice change for me, but Mandy
unfortunately left there a bit disappointed.Anyway, at least we know what’s on offer there now and we won’t hurry
back.

My hair was also becoming a
problem these days. 3 weeks of growth is
unheard of, and very evident by my ‘helmet hair’ after a day’s riding.I’ve been looking out for a barber shop for
the last few days and eventually came across one in Probolingo. Much to the amusement of the barber, I
insisted that he takes it all off.One
of the beast deals I’ve had so far. I’m
still not sure how the payment works.It
looks like you pay what you think the haircut is worth, because there is only a
tip box at the entrance, and nothing else.
After trying to get the price from the guy afterwards and being very
unsuccessful, I decided to give him 5000 Rupiah (about 40p).He seemed impressed with that; a bargain from
my point of view.

Probolingo to Pasuruan was
luckily a short day for us, at 38km. We
decided to get a room with a fan that night, seeing that it wasn’t that hot (or
maybe because our ride was shorter).It
all went well until about 2am, when we both woke up from fireworks and the late
arrival of the people in the room next to us.
They continued to ‘celebrate’ their arrival with the tv being set at,
what seems to be its highest volume, blissfully unaware that their neighbours
are trying to sleep.I had to go and
remind them (with the appropriate stern face) that they are not alone in the
hotel and that there are other people trying to sleep. Thankfully, he turned it down without putting
up a fight.To top it all off, the fan
in our room decided to pack up and we couldn’t even open the windows because of
all the mozzies (no, not Muslims - well actually, maybe them too, seeing that
they all seems to be awake at night during Ramadam and making as much noise as
they want to, with no care in the world for anyone else). We eventually fell asleep again and woke up
the following morning feeling almost more tired compared to arriving there the
previous day.

It was yet another busy, noisy
and hot day from Pasuran to Mojokerto.Staying on the main roads means that the scenery is the same everywhere
we go – this is unfortunately necessary at the moment, because we won’t have
enough time to cover the distances we need to if we don’t. One village seems to flow into the next one,
with no visible sign of it being a different place.After lots of breaks during the day, which
included a little snooze in the shade after we’ve had something to eat at lunch
time, meant that we got to the next town a bit later than we thought we
would. Just as we entered the town, we
came across a nice place to stay for the night.They were busy putting the finishing touches to the hotel and I manage
to negotiate a discount for the standard room.
The owner was very nice and decided we deserved the suite (one of the
bigger rooms) for the same price, an offer we couldn’t refuse.Our stay here was made even better by the
fact that we had proper cold milk with our tea and coffee the following
morning. The owner’s wife was very
pleased with our stay there and insisted on taking some photos of all of us the
following morning before we left.I get
the feeling we’ll be featuring in some of their marketing material, bikes and
all!

Mojokerto to Nganjuk – riding on a Sunday is
definitely quieter on the roads than any other day of the week.This is similar around noon on a Friday when
the people are supposed to be at the Friday prayers in the mosques. When we stopped for a lunchtime break, it
wasn’t too long before someone living close by took an interest in us.He was a young guy who just finished
university and could speak a fair bit of English. He was telling us how difficult it is to find
work in Indonesia and also how corrupt the government officials are, for
example, to find a job as a teacher or something similar will cost the person
looking for the job loads of money.A
year or two ago, it was about 150 million Rupiah. He thinks that the going rate is now almost
200 million (almost £14,000)– absolutely shocking.

We found a nice place to stay for
the night, but we always seem to choose places to stay which are very close to
mosques, or maybe the mosques are just everywhere.Sunrise is about 5.45am, and the first call
for prayer is at the very unsociable time of 4.30am. Once everyone is up, the day starts, and we
have little chance of getting back to sleep.We had to start using our earplugs; they seem to help a bit (that’s if I
don’t somehow loose mine half way through the night). We were also blessed with breakfast served in
our room this morning with a knock on the door at 5.50 with tea and coffee and
something they call a roti.In this
particular case, almost like a toasted sandwich type of thing with butter (or
rather margarine) and sugar. All of this
meant that it was our earliest start yet.We were out the door and on the road at 6.30, even managing 30km on a
quieter road.

We decided to have a rest day
after we arrived in Ngawi. We’ve had 5
days of continuous riding, and my knee is starting to feel a bit twitchy and
uncomfortable at the end of the day.This could only mean one thing, time for a bit of massaging again. We spent the rest of the afternoon and
following day doing nothing.

Ngawi to Solo was 85km.This time the start wasn’t quite as early as
6.30. We did manage to get away just
after 7 to try and get a few good hours in before it gets too hot.It normally gets hot around 10 – probably
between 30-35 degrees in the sun. If all
goes well, we average about 15km/hour.This means that most of the riding can be done in the morning, with
maybe an hour or so after lunch. The
hottest part of the day is probably between 11.30 – 13.00.

I suppose Ramadam isn’t such a
bad thing for us. It seems to have an effect
on our weight (or at least I think it does, combined with the cycling)…We don’t
really have a big lunch, only some fruit (mainly bananas, orange/mandarin, some
mangoes and starfruit, and some peanut snacks, biscuits and ice cream from 24hr
Indomart shops.This and about 3-4
liters of water and our own mix of Isotonik and vitamin c.

We came to the conclusion few
days ago that we won’t be able to go to Sumatra. The distance is just too big, and we only
have 30 days left on our visa.As it stands,
we’ll need to get a move-on to make it to Jakarta before the visa runs
out. We will be taking a 26 hour ferry
from Jakarta to Batam islands (which is still part of Indonesia) and then another
shorter one to Singapore.We don’t think
this is such a bad thing – I’m sure we’ll be ready for a change by then,
especially the food. You can only have
so much Nasi Goreng!!!At least there
will be a bit of Indian food in Malaysia too.

Getting to Yogyokarta (locally
known as Jogja) from Solo meant we were just about half way through Java. We have about another 650km left before we
get to Jakarta from Jogja.Our plan was
to have at least 3 nights here to give our legs some time to recover and there
are supposed to be a few tourist things to see in the city. Even though we’re getting use to cycling a
lot, we’re not even close to being really cycling fit.Our plan was however short lived – our 3
nights will most likely be 4 nights now.
As expected, I picked up a stomach bug a couple of days ago.Not wanting to be outdone, Mandy decided to
join in the fun and also showed signs of the dreaded stomach bug. We’ve been lying low the last 2 days
(literally) and getting our energy back up.Luckily, this little episode is nothing compared to our escapades we had
in Kazakhstan (yet) where we both went to hospital and stayed there for 3
nights. Unfortunately for all of you,
there won’t be any embarrassing photos with me in paisley hospital pyjamas, 2
sizes too small.

6 August 2012

Did you know – The Borobudur temple’s name originated from the
words Boro meaning temple or shrine and Budur meaning above the hill. The temple was built in the 9th
century above the hills as a stepped pyramid and was made of more than
2,000,000 andesitic rocks.Sir Thomas Stamford
Raffles sparked interest in the temple in 1814 (the then British ruler of Java). Borobudur has since received extensive
restoration work, with the largest piece of work carried out between 1975 and 1982
by the Indonesian government with the help and support of Unesco.It is now part of the Unesco world heritage
list.

We were very fortunate - our
stomach bug turned out to be not as bad as the time before. We were both still feeling a bit under the
weather and weren’t really up for the challenge of local food.We were both craving a bit of western food,
and this very conveniently led us to the most western type food you can
imagine. Yes, that’s right, we found
McDonalds and a Big mac meal was the order of the day.To do our ‘Westerness’ proud, we also decided
to stick to similar ‘normal’ food over the next couple of days - we even
managed to get some nice sautéed vegetables and mash.

We felt well enough the next day
to venture out and decided to find a few sights on our bikes. It almost felt like we had to learn how to
ride bikes again.The bikes were sooo light,
and the steering so nimble and quick.
It’s amazing how quickly you get used to a heavy load.It felt really weird to be riding without
baggage. I think I almost felt a bit
safer with all the luggage on – maybe because we are more visible on the road.We couldn’t find any of the sights we were
looking for, so we ended up in one of the shopping centres.

Yogyokarta to Borobudur (one of
the Unesco world heritage sites), was a shorter ride of 40km. Even though the ride was shorter, it was
mainly up.Nothing serious though, but
enough to make us work a bit, seeing that our energy levels weren’t back up to
their optimal levels yet. Our timing was
perfect when we left, joining everyone in the morning rush hour.So much traffic, noise and pollution. You really have to concentrate the whole time
and have the 360 vision switched on.With all the heightened senses, you unfortunately also see things you
don’t really want to see first thing in the morning. We just had a little break and got on the
bikes when this ou ballie (old man) appeared out of this little alleyway or a
gate (couldn’t really make it out).All
he had on was a shirt which was a little short for him. This meant we got an eyeful of the dangly bits
– not a great sight for us who were still feeling a bit poorly.To give him credit, at least he made us
laugh. The last 10km or so to the temple
was very pleasant.We found some quieter
roads and it was mainly downhill. The
type of hill where you don’t have to hold on for dear life, the type where you
can relax and look around a bit, cruising down at a leisurely 25-30km.Before we knew it, we made it to Borobudur.

The one and only reason to stop
in the town of Borobudur is to visit the Borobudur temple – a Unesco listed
heritage site. The Unesco listing also
means that there is a hefty entrance fee of $20 compared to the local price if
30,000 Rupiah (about $3).The visit to
the temple was very nice and really an amazing place to see, with all the stone
carvings and stupas. It is also a nice
and quiet place with big grounds to walk around.

Borobudur to Kalangang was a 62km
ride.We use a few websites (as well as
our Garmin maps) to try and work out our routes for the days. Google map is one
of them, as well as the very useful bikeroutetoaster.com. The bikeroutetoaster also uses similar maps
to Google, but the main difference is that you get elevation profiles for your
route too.We decided to try some of the
even smaller roads to get some peace and quiet and loaded some routes onto the
gps. These were roads not covered by my
gps maps.As it turned out, the routes
were very small and very steep in some places.
We pushed through some of the hills, and while having a rest break, one
of the local boys came whizzing past on his scooter, only to brake suddenly
when he saw us.All he said to us in his
broken English was ‘not good’. We had a
fair idea what he was talking about, the road ahead of course.As soon as he stopped, he was off again, only
to come back again a few minutes later.
I flagged him down and jumped on the back to go and have a look at what
lay ahead and to see if we should turn back before we commit ourselves to the
actual route.We weren’t too far past
another possible route to take which is a bit longer, but will be easier. As it turned out, he was absolutely
right.The tar road ended not far from
where we were taking a break, and was replaced by a bumpy and very rocky
footpath type road. To top all of this
off, there was a very steep long decent on this too.Good thing he stopped and warned us about it,
otherwise we would’ve carried on. We
decided to rather turn around and take the longer route.This meant a few hours of ‘wasted’ cycling
time, but what can you do.

The quieter roads also meant that
chances of finding a hotel of some sort to stay in would be slim. We started to look for a camping spot about 2
hours before sunset.We had about 45 min
left before sunset when a girl came past on her scooter and started to chat to
me. Her English was good enough to have
a conversation.She eventually asked
where we’re going and I said that we are looking for a place to put our tent
for the night. As expected, she offered
for us to come and stay at her house.Before we committed, I made sure to ask a few times…”but will it be ok
to put our tent in your garden?”. No
problem she said, and 5 minutes later we had our camping spot.It turned out to be her sister’s house, with
the village hall opposite. They said we
can put our tent on the piece of grass in front of the hall.

It was a small village, with about
a 100 people living there.This was a
blessing in disguise – we very quickly became the local attraction and the
sister said that the whole village will come and have a look at us, because
they have never had a tourist there. The
village police officer also came along to ask us a few friendly questions and
insisted in taking down some passport details so that he can answer his
supervisor’s questions.It was a
pleasant night, and our first camping experience here in Indonesia. Even though we were on show for the night, as
soon as we said we wanted to go to bed, they all left us alone (they even gave
us some nice yummy spicy snacks).

We woke up at 5.30 the next
morning to get an early start.We were
getting breakfast ready and in a blink of an eye, everyone was out again to
have a look and to make sure everything was ok.
Some nice oats and coffee was the order of the day and they left us
alone again when we wanted to pack up.They get up around 3am during Ramadam to have breakfast and then go to
the mosque to pray before going back to bed.
No wonder we see loads of people sleeping during the day.We thanked them for letting us stay there and
managed to be on our bikes by 7.30.

Kalangang to our next camp spot
was as flat as a pancake. It was a good
ride of about 65km on the coastal road.We were about 2km away from the sea the whole time, but the road was
very quiet and very good for most of the part.
We probably had about 10km of bumpy and potholed bits, but overall a
very pleasant day.

We also reached a big milestone
for us - we clocked the 1000km mark today.I can’t believe we have come so far already. Not knowing what to expect in the beginning
and trying to take it easy with my knee and to make sure we don’t do too much
too soon.Thankfully, we’ve had no real
problem yet with additional injuries and we try to listen to our bodies and
have rest days when we can.

The rest of our day was really
uneventful, maybe with the exception of when we tried to refill our water
supply, seeing that we would probably camp again. We managed to find a school with a tap and
filled our foldable bucket with water to filter into our water bottles.It wasn’t long before the local school girls
noticed us sitting opposite the road. It
didn’t take long for the pointing and giggling to start either.It is almost like they try and stalk you,
inching closer. One of the girls made a
move and ran into the school grounds behind us, pretending to take down the
school flag.This was all a bluff off
course. She was only trying to get
closer to us to have a better look.All
her friends followed. Before long, they
were all hanging over the wall behind me watching our every move, still
giggling away.

With our water supply refilled,
we set off again, in search for the next camp spot.It looked far more promising for the
night. There was a section of the road
which was a lot closer to the sea and we took the first road we found that we
thought would lead to the beach.This
turned out to be a very good move. We
found a very nice and secluded spot under some trees, about 5m from the beach,
where we pitched the tent, and locked the bikes to a tree.It was nice and early still and we managed to
relax a bit first before setting up the camp spot for the night. Not having had lunch yet either, we decided
an early dinner was in order.It was one
of those nice one-pot dinners - this time we had some fettuccini with fresh
beans and tinned mackerel, just what the doctor ordered.

We finished eating and washed up
just as the sun was setting (just before 6).
We took some time out to enjoy the sounds and smells of the sea after
another hot day on the road.The early
starts were also starting to catch up a bit and we decided it was probably a
good idea to get to bed early that night (yet another early start the following
day). We watched one episode of 24 on
our laptop before a new record ‘going to bed time’ of 7.45pm.A first for everything…

From our camp spot to Cilacap was
another 65km. This was all along the
coast, so meant to be flat, with the exception of about 10km where we had some
seriously steep hills.We got up at 5.30
again and were on the road by 7.30. We
managed to finish the first 20km of the day 12.30, completely and truly knackered.I swear, both our bikes are picking up weight
as we lose it.

I think the first 20km of the day
was harder than our 3rd day’s riding, with the 33km climb from 200m
to 1500m. There was a discreet ‘4x4’
sign painted on the road as we started the climbs.This wasn’t a gradual climb like that day –
these hills were ‘I’m going to break you
if you try to conquer me – don’t even fucking try it’ type of hill. To make things worse, we had to do it 3 or 4
times.The first was a little taster of
only 80m climb. This was followed by
bigger and bigger climbs.This was a
physical test like I haven’t really had before (and we have both run some half
marathons as well). Mandy had some good
words of inspiration for herself at one point(she needed so much inspiration
that I won’t dare repeat it on here).I
laughed so much hearing it in the distance behind me that I almost dropped my
bike.

Mandy always made fun of me because
of the little bits and bobs I carry with me, of which one is a 2m piece of
paracord. This little piece of ‘fun and
jokes’ came in very handy on this day.Luckily
I remembered I had it in my bar bag and I decided to tie the two bikes together
and help Mandy push (tow) her bike up the road.
There were loads of times when we could only manage 20-30m at a time
before we had to rest.When we were
ready to go, it felt like I was getting in the lock position in the scrum just
before you engage – knees bent, bracing yourself for what’s to come.

We made it though, by hook or by
crook. Once again Mands, goodness knows
where you get your strength and determination from.I certainly know there aren’t a lot of girls I
know of, who will be able to do what you did today. Well done and a great effort, I’m really
proud of you!!

I did make Mandy promise not to
ever laugh at my ropes again, otherwise she won’t have use of them in the
future.

After our little test of a day,
we found a nice 3 star hotel in Cilacap.
I managed to get the price down by about 30%, which made it an excellent
deal we couldn’t turn down.We managed
to eventually watch some of the Olympics for the first time (after missing the
opening ceremony) and catch up on a bit of rest. We even had our own tea/coffee facilities in
our room and a bar fridge ‘nogal’.This
was definitely a step up for the travelling gypsies. This place was so posh; we even got fresh
milk at breakfast, another first here in Indonesia.

We had a look around town the
following day, but there was nothing special going on.We did find a little café though with some really
nice roti canai (we had it in Malaysia for the first time). It is like a light fluffy pancake type thingy
which you can have as savoury or sweet.We off course had to have one of each.

Cilacap to Ajibarang was a
shorter day of about 45km. We decided to
treat ourselves to a beer today after our ride (we’ve been looking for some
beers for the last few days, but couldn’t find it anywhere, not even at the
24-hour Indomarts), even though it is Ramadam and the fact that we can hear the
mosque man doing the afternoon call to prayer.Mind you, I don’t think that really matters where we are staying - our hotel is a stark contrast to the last
couple of nights.We don’t even have a
key for our room, and while sitting on the ‘stoep’ having our beer, a ‘lady of
the night’ came tootling in on a bicycle and promptly went into the room 2 down
from us. She reappeared after 20 min,
got on her bicycle and was off…Mmmm, I wonder what she was doing here…

We have about 450km left to
Jakarta and we have about 2 weeks to do this in, so it should be a bit easier
going over the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed.

16 August 2012

Did you know – SPECIAL EDITION; It’s that time of the year to wish
my Dad a very happy birthday for 13 Aug 2012.
We hope you had a great day and it would’ve been great to spend the day
there with you.

Having the world’s largest Muslim
population means that Indonesia has countless mosques. The mosques are mainly used for prayers but
there are a few mosques which have different functions, e.g. some are only used
for Friday prayers, others for prayer meetings from Sunday to Thursday and a
mosque for memorial events in Islamic history.The modern day Mosques have very little decoration and no seats; they
normally have a high dome over the pray hall and inside you will find a niche
in the wall showing the direction of Mecca, a pulpit and a stand to hold the
Koran.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the
Muslim calendar and it is believed this was when the Holy Quran "was sent
down from heaven, guidance unto men, a declaration of direction, and a means of
Salvation".It is during this month
that Muslims fast for the entire month. During
the Fast of Ramadan, strict restraints are placed on the daily lives of
Muslims. They are not allowed to eat or drink during the daylight hours. At the end of the day the fast is broken with
prayer and a meal called the iftar. On
the evening of the 27th day of the month, Muslims celebrate the Night of Power.When the fast ends it is celebrated for three
days in a holiday called Id-al-Fitr (the Feast of Fast Breaking). Gifts are exchanged and friends and family
gather to pray in congregation and for large meals (to the best of our knowledge,
this information is correct – however if not, please let us know).

After a mediocre sleep in the
brothel, we decided to start the day with some oats and coffee instead of the
standard affair of fried rice.It’s nice
to have something plain for breakfast instead of a fry-up, but a fry-up you don’t
really feel like. If it was bacon and
egg, then it would’ve been a different story.Finding bacon here though, well…I think we have a better chance of
finding a river which isn’t polluted.
The thing with oats though, almost guaranteed to be hungry within a couple
of hours.

We thought it might be a day of
lots of hills but turned out to be ok.We had a few small ones at the start of the day, but the rest was not
bad. The last part of the day was nice
and flat and we were on some quiet roads for a change.We also had a bit of a tailwind helping us
along, but it was very hot.

The villages or towns we travel
through are mostly the same, with the exception of each town having its own
little industry going.We saw a few
unusual ones too, like a town dedicated to brick makers, or what seems to be
the entire population of woman in the town processing small red onions. The interesting one was where they were
making rope out of plastic.The plastic
they use was from what looks like big grain sacks. They pull this apart and start spinning this
into strands – almost like making silk.They keep on spinning these together to eventually make some very thick
rope.

The start of the day from Ketanggungan
to Cirebon was on a very bad potholed road.The first 10km slow going for us, having to dodge the potholes and the
bikes, cars and busses, all of which is trying to do the same. It was still better on the smaller, less busy
road with potholes, rather than the very busy main roads.We found nice hotel in centre of Cirebon with
a KFC right there too. We decided to
treat ourselves (if you can classify KFC as a treat…?) with Colonel Sanders
secret recipe, seeing that we didn’t want stall food again, i.e. Nasi Goreng,
or in plain English, fried rice.

The rest of our rest day was
pretty uneventful, with the exception of some great news from Pam (Mandy’s
sister).She managed to pass her final
ACCA exam. An excellent achievement,
well done Pam!I know how damn hard
those exams are.

The ferry schedule from Jakarta
to Batam (to get a ferry connection to Singapore) is very sporadic to say the
least. Our visa for Indonesia ends on 25
Aug, and the 26hr ferry for Batam leaves Jakarta on 24 Aug.That means that we arrive in Batam (which is
part of Indonesia) on the day our visa expires.
It probably would be ok, but who knows. So, we decided to try and catch
the earlier ferry from Jakarta, which leaves on the 15th of
Aug.This means we’ll have to get our
act together to get to Jakarta on time.
Time to put ‘voet in die hoek’.We will have to cover 260km in about 3 or 4 days.

The route planning from Cirebon
to Karangsinom was definitely not our best effort (it was at the planning stage
though). It looked like smaller roads on
the maps we use, but it was full of trucks, busses and all sorts.Most of the road was two lane dual carriage,
but there was absolute no hard shoulder.
Our concentration levels were almost at an all-time high for the
day.It was a long day in the saddle,
doing over 70km, with lots of little breaks to get out the sun and away from
the traffic.

We had very limited choice of
accommodation, only passing 2 hotels on the way, and we definitely didn’t feel
like looking for a spot to camp in the heat.In any case, it was flat everywhere with rice fields as far as the eye
could see, so no real place to ‘hide-out’.
We stopped at what looked like a business hotel in the Karangsinom area.The sign outside proclaimed 3 star
facilities.

It was ok, but on the ‘value for
money’ scale, not that great. We didn’t
get a good start to the day.We went for
breakfast at 6.30, but there was no breakfast in sight. It still being Ramadhan meant that everyone was
up at the sparrow’s fart (or even before that) and they polished everything
off.We just about managed to get a cup
of coffee from someone. The rest of the
staff weren’t doing a lot either. Most of them were asleep on the couches in
the lobby of the hotel.One particular guy
was really enjoying his morning sleep with his stomach hanging out and his one
hand down his pants. This wasn’t what we
needed on what turned out to be our longest day yet in the saddle.We covered 105km from Karangsinom to Karawang. Now we’ll be able to do the Cape Argus cycle
race, no problem, even on a fully loaded touring bike.

Once again, the roads were very
busy, constantly being cut in front of by taxis and busses.The taxis would come speeding past you, only
to immediately pull in front of you and stop right there to pick up or drop
someone. It really was (and still is) very
frustrating; if only they could be as considerate as the taxi drivers in South Africa.We had to use our whistles again so that
people, cars and taxis can maybe hear us, or if we’re lucky enough, see us.

We decided to have a good lunch
and rest, seeing that we planned to do extra 30km to get to Jakarta
earlier. The one long rest stop wasn’t
enough - we also had to have a second stop about an hour or so after lunch
because it was just too hot.We could
feel our flabby bits turning into crispy bacon strips. We ended up resting at a garage in a nice
shady spot for about 45 min to wait for the midday sun to disappear.

Our last 15km of the day was very
busy as it was getting to rush hour and we were getting closer to the town we
wanted to stay in. We found a massive
hotel - it must’ve been a very grand hotel in its heyday, with a big swimming
pool and loads of big rooms, massive restaurant, but like so many other hotels
here, very run down.It was however very
conveniently located opposite a Carrefour (French supermarket chain with a
presence in Indonesia). We went to look
for some dinner and cold beer, but came back with our tails between our legs,
empty handed.It looked like no beer was
being sold in the town because of Ramadan.
We ended up with our ‘favourite’ dish again in the hotel restaurant,
Nasi Goreng.

We did the extra 30km the
previous day in order to try and reach Jakarta on a Sunday instead of Monday to
try and avoid the Monday traffic rush.We started around 7.30 and roads were already busy – it’s hard to
believe it’s a Sunday morning. Don’t
these people ever stay at home?The
closer we got the city, the worse the driving skills got again and we had to
rely on our whistles again a lot of the time.
Poor Mandy had a close call with a bus that chose to ignore her or maybe
didn’t see her…who knows.I suppose this
is the only way we can gain the experience of how to cope in the mad
traffic. We’ll be facing this sort of
driving in a few countries still, with Vietnam and India springing (or is that
leaping) to mind.

We got into Jakarta just after
lunch and struggled to find a place where the bikes would be safe.They all wanted us to leave the bikes outside
on the busy roads, telling us that it will be ok there, because they have staff
there 24 hours a day. Mmmm, no chance of
that, your staff might be like the one we caught with his hand in the cookie
jar, or was that in his pants?After
riding around for about 2 hours we managed to find a hotel that could help us
out. One of the other hotels in the
chain had a more secure area with 24hr security and not close to the road,
where the bikes would be out of sight (and hopefully out of mind).This was definitely our best bet out of the
lot. Luckily we have good locks with us.

Jakarta dished up some nice food
for a change.We went to one of the
numerous local Chinese restaurants and had some good beef ginger and some beer
to celebrate our arrival in Jakarta. A
stroll after dinner took us past a few weird and wonderful food stalls, some of
which had spitting cobras for sale, with the bloody knife on the block, waiting
for the next victim.It’s said that
eating cobra, especially drinking the beating heart in a shot of the local
brew, is supposed to make you strong – I think we’re strong enough though and
will probably stick to cycling for now.
We also unfortunately saw someone selling a slow loris, poor thing.

We managed to get our ferry
tickets the following day without too much hassle, thanks to the friendly
manager at the hotel we were staying at.We thought we had to buy the tickets from the Tanjung Priok ferry
terminal, but after a few phone calls by him, he said we could get it from the
Pelni office in town. He ordered a taxi for us and we were on our way within a
few minutes. A process we thought would
take almost half a day ended up taking us only about an hour.The experience of driving around town in a
taxi is so different to what we’ve experienced on the bikes. The overall experience of the country will also
be vastly different from the comfort of a taxi or air-con bus.Our stress levels were close to zero in the
taxi and we couldn’t smell any of the smelly drains and pipes and rubbish lying
around. So this is what it would feel
like to be a normal tourist?

We had one spare day in Jakarta
for some sightseeing, but to be honest, this was enough for us.Maybe we’ve just had enough of the country,
who knows. We didn’t do too much besides
from looking for new ‘luggage bags’ for the ferry.We found something similar to what we used on
the plane from London to Bali, but a lot stronger this time. We will be keeping these in order to use them
again when we fly.They fold up small
enough and aren’t heavy. I’m not too
sure about the designs though, but Mandy keeps reassuring me we won’t look like
nobs.I still think they’re pretty naff
though.

The ferry departure time was 10am
and we had to be there 2 hours before departure. We decided to leave the hotel at 7am to do
the 12 km to the ferry.Good thing we
gave ourselves a bit of time, as it wasn’t that easy to navigate to the ferry
terminal, having to avoid the highways.
In our rush to get to the ferry, we didn’t have time to stop at a shop
for some snack for the ferry.This was
one of those ‘told you so’ moments where we knew what had to be done, but never
did it. Only one way to learn I suppose and
that is by experience, albeit it not a great experience.The ferry trip is 26 hours long, and
everything was almost 3 times the price on the ship. Luckily we made sure we had enough water with
us.

The ferry trip was definitely so-so.On the surface, it looked relatively clean,
but once you sit down on your bed and see what’s really going on, then it’s a
different story. We decided to abandon
our allocated spot and look for a cleaner and more comfortable spot somewhere
else.We did find one which was better,
but not that great. The price difference
between our economy ticket and a cabin was huge.Cabin prices were almost 6 times as much, so
we thought it’s time to toughen up and grin and bear it. Not a lot of grinning going on, more bearing
I would say - the toilets were grim and smelly and the place had a distinctive stink
to it after a couple of hoursSome toilets
were a bit better where it wasn’t so busy on the ferry. The overall air quality in the place must’ve
had real bad effect on me, because my chest was a bit sore for a few days after
we got to Singapore.Probably a
combination of the damp air and smoke (even though there were no smoking signs
everywhere).

On the bright side, our food was
included in the price. The joys of
having food tokens were short-lived.The
food they served was definitely not ‘Michelin’ quality, although we couldn’t
really complain too much about the variety.
Lunch was plain rice with a little fish; dinner was a small fish with
its head on and some plain rice.Breakfast on the other hand had some good plain rice and a bit of fish
(a bit small though). Our final lunch
had a bit of sauce with, you guessed it, plain rice and a little bony
fish.Luckily, and not to be outdone by
the chefs on board, we had our own fish with us…tin of chilly tuna and also tin
of chilly tomato mackerel. Tasted like
gourmet food compared to the bony fish…

Our arrival at Batam couldn’t
come quick enough. Much to our surprise,
we arrived on schedule or even 30 min early.Getting off the ferry was a lot easier than getting on. We packed our bikes on board and the stairs
down weren’t too steep and there weren’t many either.We could simply wheel them down the
stairs. It was only a short 5 min walk
to the ferry terminal to Singapore.Arriving at the terminal, everything already seemed a lot better and everything
looked new and was super clean. We quickly
bought our tickets for the 45 min ferry to Singapore and were ready to go.We’ve been looking forward to this for the
last week or so. Indonesia started to
sap the energy from us far too quickly and often.

Final thoughts – We had no idea of what to expect from
Indonesia.I somehow thought the whole
place would be this idyllic island setting.
How wrong could someone be? Bali
was very nice and good starting point for us in Indonesia. We needed a bit of a rest since finishing up
at work and thought it would be a good place to do that.It was also nice to have our good friend Alun
with us for a little while too.

Indonesia as a whole is probably
not the best country to start a cycle tour if you are still novices at it. We felt like we were thrown into the deep end
as soon as we reached Java.The
population is very dense and there is not a lot of space left there. The road infrastructure is good considering
the amount of people and cars, but isn’t great from a cycling perspective.The driving is nothing to look forward to
either. It was difficult for us
travelling in Indonesia, but it was also enjoyable to some extent.Most people were friendly, but the ‘Hello
Mister’ did get very annoying at times, especially towards the end. The main drawback for us was the constant
traffic and driving standards and most of all, the pollution (for all those
moaning about Euro emissions control, thank your lucky stars) – not only air
pollution, but also all the rubbish everywhere, especially the rivers.The country is cheap, but standards aren’t
great. Then again, can’t expect too much
if you look at what you pay.

I’m glad we came here to see what
it’s like, but won’t rush back for now.I think our experience may have been completely different if we weren’t
on bicycles. Travelling in an air-con
bubble would’ve given us a completely different experience….onto Singapore!